Shields

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Human female character blocking with a shield
All possible procedural shield appearances. Top row: Common Small. Middle row: Common Large. Bottom row: Uncommon.

Shields are an item in Starbound that allows the player to defend against attacks. This action is called blocking.

All shields are found randomly in chests or dropped by NPCs, except for the Basic Shield which can be crafted at an Anvil (the Basic Shield can still be found in Glitch Dungeon Crawlers, though). The only obtainable shield that can't be found as loot would be the Riot Shield, which is purchased from the Peacekeeper Store.

Shield Mechanics

  • Raised shields will knock enemies back upon contact. They have a base knockback power of 10 (weak knockback). The shield deals no damage, however.
  • A shield's cooldown time determines how long the user must wait before they can raise the shield after switching to or lowering it.
  • A raised shield will remain raised for a minimum time of 0.2 seconds before it can be lowered again.
  • When a shield is raised, it gains perfect block for the first 0.2 seconds, indicated by the shield visibly flashing.
    • If an attack hits the shield while perfect block is active, the attack is absorbed without damaging the shield, and the remaining duration of perfect block is refreshed to 0.2 seconds.
    • A perfect block can be active for a maximum of 1 second - beyond this, the shield will begin to take damage from further attacks.
    • Perfect block max duration regenerates at 50% of max duration per second - that is, you must lower your shield for at least 2 seconds in order to be able to perfect-block for 1 second again.
  • Damage reduction provided by the shield user's stats (such as armor bonuses) affects the amount of damage that the shield receives.
  • A shield will forcibly lower itself when its health is depleted. Its health must regenerate before it can be raised again.
  • Shields regenerate 20% of their max health every second.
    • Shields will begin regenerating health after having not received damage for 2 seconds.

Procedurally Generated Shields

Many found shields are randomly generated with names constructed via a selection of prefixes and suffixes. They have a range of appearance based on the shield type. They can be found as either small or large shields, which are either wooden or metal.

  • Large shields, with a tier 1 base health of 35, can block more damage at a time before breaking, but possess a cooldown of 0.7 seconds that triggers when the shield is lowered.
  • Small shields only have a cooldown of 0.5 seconds on lowering; however, they have a tier 1 base health of 25.

Shields gain an additional 10% of their tier 1 health for each tier above tier 1.

  • At tiers 1/2/3/4/5/6, large shields have 35/39/42/46/49/53 health.
  • At tiers 1/2/3/4/5/6, small shields have 25/28/30/33/35/38 health.

Currently all procedural shields are of common rarity. PNGs for uncommon procedural shields exist in the assets, but no other assets exist for them, so they are not usable in the game.

Premade Shields

Premade shields have a set amount of base health and a fixed appearance, though unlike most unique items, their level is (generally) variable rather than fixed - a version of the shield found on a high-Tier Planet will have more health than a different version of the shield found on a low-tier planet.

They can be found in specific locations and, apart from the Basic Shield, do not share an appearance with procedurally generated shields.

Unique Shields
Basic ShieldEye ShieldFloran ShieldFrost ShieldMushroom ShieldRiot ShieldSeashell Shield